How healthy is your county?

By ANGEL McCURDY / Daily News

Published: Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 03:38 PM.

Local health officials are using recent county health rankings to focus their attention on residents’ needs.

Santa Rosa County ranks the best along the Emerald Coast and is considered the 10th healthiest county in Florida, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Okaloosa County is ranked 16th and Walton County is ranked 41st out of Florida’s 67 counties.

“For county health rankings, we look at how we can continue to make our county a healthy place to live, learn, work and play,” said Katie Cholcher, community health improvement coordinator for the Okaloosa County Health Department. “Our rankings are in line with current goals of our community health plan. We look at access to care, working with tobacco cessation, education, nutrition resources and outcomes.”

Public health officials in Okaloosa, Walton and Santa Rosa counties said their biggest focus has been and will continue to be chronic diseases.

“The resources allow us to look at ways to help with primary care,” said Holly Holt, administrator for the Walton County Health Department. “We look at dealing with diabetic screenings, primary care physicians, as well as dealing with behaviors like smoking and obesity.”

Health officials in each county said they will use the rankings and statistics to try to improve residents’ health.

“Community health improvement takes time,” said Debbie Stilphen, operations analyst and public information officer for the Santa Rosa County Health Department. “It’s not as though we can address an issue today and tomorrow get results. What we will do is continue to work with our community partners, and we feel like we’ll continue to see improvements.”

Counties will meet with their community health improvement teams, or CHIP teams, in the next few weeks to discuss the rankings and look at areas that need more focus.

“We will be looking at what we’re doing as a community and where we’re pulling partnerships from the community,” Holt said. “The Health Department can’t do this alone. This (ranking) is just one of the tools we use. We’ll be pulling together a group to re-evaluate our health plan we had last year and continue looking at that for what our strategic plan will be next year.”

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published
without permission. Links are encouraged.

Local health officials are using recent county health rankings to focus their attention on residents’ needs.

Santa Rosa County ranks the best along the Emerald Coast and is considered the 10th healthiest county in Florida, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Okaloosa County is ranked 16th and Walton County is ranked 41st out of Florida’s 67 counties.

“For county health rankings, we look at how we can continue to make our county a healthy place to live, learn, work and play,” said Katie Cholcher, community health improvement coordinator for the Okaloosa County Health Department. “Our rankings are in line with current goals of our community health plan. We look at access to care, working with tobacco cessation, education, nutrition resources and outcomes.”

Public health officials in Okaloosa, Walton and Santa Rosa counties said their biggest focus has been and will continue to be chronic diseases.

“The resources allow us to look at ways to help with primary care,” said Holly Holt, administrator for the Walton County Health Department. “We look at dealing with diabetic screenings, primary care physicians, as well as dealing with behaviors like smoking and obesity.”

Health officials in each county said they will use the rankings and statistics to try to improve residents’ health.

“Community health improvement takes time,” said Debbie Stilphen, operations analyst and public information officer for the Santa Rosa County Health Department. “It’s not as though we can address an issue today and tomorrow get results. What we will do is continue to work with our community partners, and we feel like we’ll continue to see improvements.”

Counties will meet with their community health improvement teams, or CHIP teams, in the next few weeks to discuss the rankings and look at areas that need more focus.

“We will be looking at what we’re doing as a community and where we’re pulling partnerships from the community,” Holt said. “The Health Department can’t do this alone. This (ranking) is just one of the tools we use. We’ll be pulling together a group to re-evaluate our health plan we had last year and continue looking at that for what our strategic plan will be next year.”